Restrictions to be eased at Easter *MNHQ title edit to remind everyone not to get their hopes up.*

[sally067]

Not sure if it was mentioned in another thread but I saw tonight that it looks like the Government plans are that we will see this lockdown lifted at the beginning of April.

twitter.com/tnewtondunn/status/1351313981894483970

This thread of tweets seems to suggest that cities will likely only go back into Tier's 3 and 4 though so we'll still be in a lockdown of sorts until May regardless of the vaccine rollout due to the shear number of cases at present. I guess any hope of things opening in February or March were a bit of a long shot with the new variant.

All seems so endless. Easter is 12 weeks or 51 working days away. I've never wished my life away so much and really hope we get an early Spring.

@MaMaD1990

I'd be happy to stay in lockdown until autumn to be honest. I'm sick of the uncertainty of 'will we won't we' go back into lockdown. I want it over and done with and if that means another 9 months of lockdown, so be it.

FFS It's better to live like this for 9 months than have periods going in and out? Are you ok?

I am beginning to wonder if we will ever get out of this

I know what you mean. I feel the same. The vaccine is the way out of this we were told. Now all you read about is don't expect to go back to normal having had the vaccine. Where is the end date?

@inquietant

There is going to be a serious backlash against the government sooner or later.

Only a small minority think current lockdown is too harsh. They are vocal, but most support the measures or want measures to go further.

Have you got a link for that? Because I don’t believe you.

@wanderings

Sigh. So we're just starting "we can turn thith viruth around in twelve weekth" all over again. The pain, confusion, frustration and boredom we've suffered since March has all been for nothing. We are well and truly back to square one, and now with a massive recession and millions unemployed to look forward to, and absolutely decimated mental health. Thank you, Saint Boris. This is what you will be remembered for. I hope you enjoy your place in the history books.

As for those who are hoping for another 9 months of this lockdown hell: I hope you have found another magic money tree to fund your loooooooooooong lockdown, and the mental health services which will be needed. People are effectively being imprisoned for a crime which they didn't commit.

The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
We've been hearing this since March LAST YEAR!!!!!!!!!

Very disablist language there @wanderings

From my perspective in the North East there were a few weeks in the summer when we were allowed to see family inside and apart from that it's been at best 'rule of six outside' and at worst this, sincw March

I don’t really care so long as schools reopen after Feb half-term - which I’m sure they will. Primaries anyway.

I read today in the paper that the UK now has the worst death rate in the world. We had the highest number of deaths recorded yesterday throughout the pandemic (less than a month after Christmas). Yet posters will still pop up to say ‘Boris is doing his best’ or ‘No-one would have done better’. Already, in January, there is talk of Easter that he won’t be able to resist over promising on (like he did when we were in lockdown in November when it was announced 3families, mixing indoors for 5 days - when we had not been mixing indoors in households for months). The situation is depressing but it’s made worse by the fact we have an over optimistic cretin running the national response. Where is the plan for re-opening schools in a safer way? Or will they go with an inequitable last minute mess yet again?

@IndiaMay I hear you on weddings. We've been together 11 years, engaged for 3 and now just want to get on with it. Booked for June last year and moved on to June this year thinking surely things must improve in a year, but Good Friday is just way too close to the date.

We can't keep postponing with no idea of when it can actually happen, so I think we will just have to pay over the odds for something small and difficult, with guests probably wishing it over. Bleh 😔

Lockdown until autumn. I’ve followed the restrictions and lockdowns but if it continues until then what will there be left to go out for.
So many people will be out of work and the NHS, police etc are all paid for by working people’s taxes, if not enough are working what then?

@toodleloooo indeed! Angers me so much when people say 'just move it' most wedding venues wont let you move until 6 weeks before because they are praying it can go ahead. They don't want people who have already paid filling up their 2022 dates, they need new bookings and payments just to stay solvent!

Friends of ours have paid about £25,000 for a 100 person wedding in April (moved from last July). If they're lucky their venue will let them move it in March. If they say no and the area is T3, 2 or 1. Well that's a very expensive day for at best 15 people!

From what my friend (on ccg) was saying they are modelling letting some younger pupils back after half term, the effect of masks at secondary etc at the moment to try to work out how to maintain the downward trajectory whilst allowing some reopening. The computer models can help to demonstrate different combinations eg primary schools plus shops or all schools but masks at secondary etc. No review is likely until early feb at the earliest as to loosening as they have already said mid feb to us. The positive is the sharply falling new cases, but overall infection rate must drop to far lower percentages to allow more reopening, we aren't even back to November yet. Then the hospitals need to getting far less admissions and the death rate reduce dramatically

@inquietant

I for one would not be staying in a lockdown to autumn! You can if you want, but the rest of us intend to get our lives back long before then!

Just regarding the comment about 'the rest of us' - current opinion polling (within last week) still has very high majority support for increasing lockdown measures.

The public in general is more in favour of lockdown than the government.

That’s true in terms of polling, but so many people call for strict restrictions while not actually sticking to the rules themselves. I know so many people want hospitality closed and key worker rules tightened but will have play dates, or pop round to their cousin’s for a coffee.

I also think a lot of the public are naive about the harm that lockdown is doing.

For my part I would rather stay in lockdown a bit longer if it means we stay out of it but I’m very mindful of the horrific effect it is having on so many of the socio-economically vulnerable so I hope they manage to get us out ASAP.

Thank you @Daisysflowers, luckily I have people to talk to but they have noticed my usual happy personality dwindle lately. Let's hope we are out of this sooner rather than later

I feel sorry for all those people who have lost loved ones. Although we might be pulling our hair out with isolation, homeschooling, inconvenience. It really doesn't compare. Let's listen to the scientists this time Boris shall we?

@BertTheBeetle It's been a long time hasn't it. I've well and truly gone into my shell, just hope the old me reappears 😞

Schools shouldn’t be the first thing looking to open unless all teachers/staff are vaccinated and kids are made to wear masks, IMO.

I don’t see this happening in feb!

It’ll be Easter as there’ll be nothing left otherwise. This I’m afraid will burn for a few years as it’s established globally and vaccine escape will likely occur. It’ll get easier though and shouldn’t require such drastic action each time.

@IndiaMay exactly - it's always "will you just move it on again?" but the industry is already on its knees, if venues/suppliers will even let you (and you are prepared to do so not knowing whether it's even going to be ok then). It was hard enough to get a registrar slot for a Saturday when we moved on last June, such is the demand. I hope it all works out ok for you and your friend

They've acknowledged schools are not safe now, and that teachers and other school staff are more at risk than other professions. There is simply no way now that they can open schools in February as they were before Christmas. It would be criminal and I'm not sure the unions would comply. What a mess!

It's ok to ease lockdown when infection rates are low. It was the right thing to ease last june. The massive mistake was not to take action at the start of September when numbers began to increase again.
I really hope schools open before Easter.

Lets just hope they get the second pzifer jabs into people soon and they keep lockdown until needed. I just hope they don't make same mistakes as last year by opening up everything too quickly causing more lockdowns and chaos. I would rather have lockdown for longer, more jabs given out and a return to some sort of normality for longer not constant going back into lockdown.
I'm in Kent, we were in Tier 4 anyway long before lockdown began. If we go back into Tier 4 it changes nothing really, it's still essentially a lockdown. Why bother even coming out of it, it just renaming it🙄
I don't get why he can't open up when most people have actually been vaccinated. Especially working age people.

Rightly or wrongly lockdowns are to save the nhs not lives. Once the over 70’s and vulnerable are vaccinated and numbers are dropping things will start opening up, the government won’t wait till teachers etc are vaccinated. There’s no plan to even vaccinate children yet. This isn’t what I’m saying is right before I’m flamed just what the government have always said.

Just seen on sky news that the Pfizer jab first dose may now only offer 33% protection as opposed to the 90% they found in trials. They really need to u turn on their wait 12 weeks plan and get second doses in to the vulnerable asap.

@wanderings

Sigh. So we're just starting "we can turn thith viruth around in twelve weekth" all over again. The pain, confusion, frustration and boredom we've suffered since March has all been for nothing. We are well and truly back to square one, and now with a massive recession and millions unemployed to look forward to, and absolutely decimated mental health. Thank you, Saint Boris. This is what you will be remembered for. I hope you enjoy your place in the history books.

As for those who are hoping for another 9 months of this lockdown hell: I hope you have found another magic money tree to fund your loooooooooooong lockdown, and the mental health services which will be needed. People are effectively being imprisoned for a crime which they didn't commit.

The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
The end will be in sight.
We've been hearing this since March LAST YEAR!!!!!!!!!

This. It’s all so ridiculous now. It’s not my fault the NHS is overwhelmed and yet we’re being punished as if it is.

And I agree there will be a backlash. 23rd March and a year of this nonsense will be a milestone